Three dead, including gunman, in Florida shooting at Madden video game tournament (WARNING: GRAPHIC AUDIO)

The shooting happened at a Madden video game tournament in Jacksonville. (@ANAKRON199X)

A gunman opened fire at a video game tournament taking place Sunday at a downtown Jacksonville, Fla., mall, killing two people and injuring 12 others.

The two dead gamers were identified by Jacksonville TV stations WJAX and WFOX as Eli Clayton, 22, of Woodland Hills, Calif., who played under the name “Trueboy,” and Taylor Robinson, 27, of Ballard, W. Va., who used the name “SpotMePlzzz.”

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Gamer David Katz, identified by the Jacksonville sheriff’s office as the alleged shooter, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The 24-year-old Baltimore native, known as “Bread” and “Ravenschamp,” won the 2017 Madden 17 Bills Championship.

Police believe Katz stayed at a local hotel Saturday night and have impounded his car. He used “at least one handgun” in the shooting, according to Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Chief Kurtis Wilson.

Wilson declined to identify any motive for the mass shooting. Two people were also injured fleeing the chaos at Jacksonville Landing, an open-air riverfront with bars and stores, Sunday afternoon.

David Katz won the Madden 17 Bills Championship last year. (Buffalo Bills)

Baltimore police searched a house in their city late Sunday while “assisting our partner law enforcement agencies with some information,” a spokesman told the Baltimore Sun.

Steven (Steveyj) Javaruski, who was competing in the football video game tournament, told the Los Angeles Times that the gunman was another gamer who began shooting after he lost during the tournament, which was being livestreamed. Javaruski, 22, claims the shooter “targeted a few people” before killing himself.

Witnesses also told the Tampa Bay Times that the shooter was mad because he lost during the qualifying event for the Madden 19 Tournament at the GLHF Game Bar, an event that drew professional players from around the world.

On a livestream of the event posted to the website Twitch, multiple gunshots ring out as people scream and the game suddenly stops. One person can be heard asking, “What are you shooting with?”

Police said they were aware of videos of the shooting.

In February 2017, the Buffalo Bills celebrated Katz as the winner of the Madden 17 Bills Championship in a tweet; Katz, seen in the photograph with offensive tackle Cyrus Kouandjio, received a personalized Bills jersey with the words “Madden champ.”

After Sunday’s mass shooting, six patients — one in serious condition — were being treated at University of Florida Health, three others at Jacksonville Memorial Hospital and one at Baptist Medical Center.

The mother of a gamer who goes by Larry Legend also tweeted that her son had been shot three times.

Sujeil Lopez told the The New York Times that her 25-year-old son had been shot in the nipple, a hand and another area of his body.

“God was with these guys today,” she tweeted with a photo from her son’s hospital bedside.

Law enforcement boats patrol the St. Johns River at the scene of the shooting. (Will Dickey / AP)

Taylor Poindexter, 26, told the Orlando Sentinel that the gunshot “sounded like a balloon pop.” She and her boyfriend Marquis Williams were at the bar next door after he was eliminated from the competition.

“We saw a figure standing there with two hands on a gun, just walking back, just firing shots,” she told the newspaper.

EA Sports, which manufactures Madden, said they were monitoring the situation and working with authorities to gather information.

“This is a horrible situation, and our deepest sympathies go out to all involved,” the company said in a statement.

Winners of the Madden 19 tournament could take home between $100 and $1,000, with the top two gamers moving on to the finals in Las Vegas. The game, released on Aug. 7, allows players to assemble their own NFL teams and compete online or with friends.

The NFL also said it was “shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific tragedy.”

“Our hearts go out to all those affected,” the league said in a statement. “We are grateful for the first responders immediately on the scene. We support our partners at EA Sports and will continue to monitor developments with local law enforcement.”

Sunday’s violence comes after a shooting outside a Florida high school football game, which left one person dead and two others hurt. The Jacksonville sheriff's office reported that the shooting occurred about 10 p.m. Friday as the crowd was leaving the Raines High School football game.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the President had been briefed on the shooting and was monitoring the situation. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he was in contact with the Jacksonville sheriff’s office to “offer any state resources” needed and that President Trump had also offered federal resources.

The deadly gunfire comes six months after a massacre at a high school in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead. March for Our Lives, the movement launched after the February school shooting, also spoke out in support.

“As another mass shooting plagues our home state of Florida, we continue to come together in the face of daily tragedy in order to prevent the trauma that has become too normal in our nation,” the organization said in a statement.

“Bullets do not discriminate — whether on our streets, in our schools, or at our video game tournaments. Gun violence takes many forms and we must perpetuate the necessary conversations in order to bring peace to our violent nation.”